My History with White Noise

I imagine you already know that my 2 kids love white noise.  While they can sleep without it, they don’t sleep as well, and they usually ask for it!  Maybe they just enjoy turning the knobs, but the truth is, white noise has brought house-wide peace to our family.  I don’t have to worry about phone calls interrupting naps or one child awakening the other too soon.

White Noise for Babysitting

That said, I am also a lover of white noise for babysitting!  Why I occasionally take care of extra children is a discussion for another day, but there is something wonderful about feeling confident that adding in the noise of an extra child or two will not end the peace we have been enjoying, or make the added child uncomfortable.

In fact, there is one little girl in particular that I have kept 5 times over the course of 18 months.  The first time I kept her, she was a mere 6 weeks.  The second and third times she was just shy of a year, and this last two times, she was 18 months.  All 5 times, I had the responsibility of feeding her, playing with her, and putting her down for a nap that she wasn’t necessarily excited about.  Sweet as she is, this little girl is not known for her sleeping prowess.  All I can say is that our white noise generator encouraged some sweet sleep for little A.  When she was 6 weeks, I swaddled her, rocked her a bit, and put on some soothing sounds.  By a year and a year and a half, I transitioned her to waterfall sounds.  Either way, Baby A could sleep while my older kids were able to play without me “shhing” them all afternoon.

A Shocking Result

Her parents were shocked how well she slept!  As a matter of fact, they have been sharing their bedroom with her for the past 18 months, even though they have a spare bedroom!  Unfortunately, that spare room is directly off the living room, and rather than chance her awakening early, they’d rather put her in their more secluded bedroom.  Interestingly, we had the same set-up the last place we lived.  I was unwilling to co-sleep, though, which was why we invested in portable sound machines.  I couldn’t be happier with the result…because when baby sleeps well, we all benefit.

London!

A few weeks ago, my family of 4 and my in-laws went to London for a few days.  We got a cheap flight on EasyJet from Aberdeen to Luton and then hopped a Greenline bus to Victoria Station.  From there, we took a short train to Clapham and walked to a family member’s flat.  As usual, it was a lot of prep work, but ended up being a very inexpensive way to stay in London for 4 nights!  It saved us enough money to be able to do some shopping, eat well, and even see Wicked!  I highly recommend the trip, as London is not a city you’ll want to miss!

White Noise

However, you may have noticed I mentioned my family of 4- that includes a 2 and a 4 year old.  This trip was their first time to share a room…um, yea.  I was stressed about it, but there was not a lot we could do- after all, 6 of us were staying in 1 flat!  We were blessed to have the space we did have!  So, even though we only got a small carry-on for the flight, I was sure we packed 2 white noise generators, as we always do, no matter luggage restrictions!  Sleep is priceless to us, so I would rather re-wear the same clothes than go without white noise.

And, as a matter of fact, those bad boys did the trick again!  Even though my son was up crying quite a bit of the first night, my daughter slept right through it!  And, when he had settled, we were able to turn our generator on at a low level, which enabled us to do several things:

1. hear him if he needed help
2. keep our windows open for ventilation but not be kept awake by the night life outside

Once again, white noise, I love you!!  Thank you for being effective and portable!

Family visits

We moved to Scotland almost 2 years ago.  My husband was incredibly excited about starting his PhD program in the UK with a leading theologian, and I….well, I was surviving.  We left a house and community I loved and moved even farther away from our families.  I was happy to support my husband but devastated for myself.  In all honesty, this move has been amazing for our own family and sense of identity.  We depend on each other more than on our parents, and since we’re in our 30′s, that’s a good {healthy} thing.  However, we both really do miss having family nearby- whether it’s helping with the kids or sharing a meal, we feel rather alone in that area.  Fortunately, our families have made us a priority and both have chosen to visit us each year.  Their visits are the highlight of our time here sometimes because it just feels so natural.  Stuff that might normally be annoying just isn’t because we cherish our limited time together.

Having family visit for 3 weeks has been stretching, too.  I am not exactly flexible sleep-wise for the kids, and I have always been terrified of rooming them together.  We have usually managed to avoid that nightmare by sleeping Luke in his happy tent in odd spots, for example, but this time we decided to put the 2 kids together.  I dealt with my anxiety about the upcoming ordeal by not thinking about it.  {Yes, that’s called denial.}  But the first night did come and we survived.  Here’s what we did {keep in mind that they are 2 and almost 4}

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  Hey- at least I didn't pop noise canceling headphones on them...

  Moved the 2 year old’s crib to a spot the 4 year old wouldn’t have to walk past if she got up to go to the bathroom, etc.

• Slept 2 year old in the crib in the new spot for nap, so it was not a surprise for bed.
• Also had the air mattress positioned so both kids could see where everything would be.
• Made sure they were really sleepy, but not overtired.
• Talked about them “getting” {not having} to share a room and how fun that would be!  {Do you hear my happy tone?}
• Got them ready for bed together.
• Read their bedtimes stories and did their prayers together.
• Plugged in2 white noise generators- 1 by each of them since it is a decently-sized room.  {Two may have been over-kill, but I don’t care.}
• Practiced with 4 year old on how to get up and let herself out quietly.
• Said good-night to both and shut the door.

Well, that’ what we did.  Here’s what I wish we would have done better.

• Told the 4 yar old to ignore the 2 year old and sleep through his fussing.  {can you really do that, though?}
• Not let the 2 year old bounce on the air mattress, adding to his growing belief that the air mattress is obviously where all the cool kids sleep.
• Not used a night light.

Truth be told, they did great, though!  Each night it got easier and the younger one asked for the air mattress less.  The lack of extra light also helped keep them both asleep through the night.  Practising with the older one was definitely a good idea, and we praised her for being such a good {and quiet!} big sister!  Obviosuly, you know my love for white noise, so the generators were clutch in covering toddler sleeping sounds, as well as 2 extra adults going up an down the stairs, etc.

Now I am just wondering if they’ll want to go back to separate rooms?

White Noise for Window Installation

What could you do with an extra couple hours?

I think our landlord got tired of paying a carpenter to not fix the leak in our bathroom.  Our apartment had gotten incredibly drafty, and not in a good way.  In an apartment sans air conditioning, closed windows are not okay.  So, when we did try to open the windows, we had to use our entire bodies to muscle it ajar, only to find them gaping open, a veritable death wish for our 2 small children who know nothing of mortality, as well as ourselves dreading having to close them again.    So, long story not so short, we got new windows!  Thousands of dollars worth of new windows.  (Fingers crossed that our rent won’t go up…wishful thinking?)  Anyway, the guys came yesterday to install said windows…right when it was my 2 year old’s nap time.  I’m not sure about you, but massive amounts of hammering window frames, breaking glass, and loud drills are not exactly conducive to good sleep.  I kid you not, I turned on the white noise, and the kid was out!  3 hours and a million drills later, I woke him up.   I don’t think it’s possible to completely drone out drilling and hammering a room away, but the way white noise works allowed his brain to ignore it.   In all honesty, I don’t care how it works, as long as it worked.  I can do a lot in 3 hours.

What could you do in 3 hours?

• Catch up on laundry
• Call a friend
• Update your blog
• Read a book
• Take a nap
• Cook dinner
• Work from home
• ???

Both of my children are used to white noise when they sleep. It is part of their bedtime routine and they really like having it. Last night my husband went camping with my daughter for the first time. We do have portable white noise machines, but without electricity, they obviously weren’t of any use. So, hubby devised a white noise stand in. He simply tuned his cell phone radio to a station where there was no signal and thus static. Voila! White noise. Granted, not the best white noise, but my daughter isn’t picky. We’ve successfully used an alarm clock radio in a pinch too. (If it is too “shrill” or “tinny” sounding, then you can throw a shirt over the speaker and it will muffle the sound some.) Again, not a long term solution, but it worked for the night.

Last week, I shared our top two must-haves for traveling with friends and/or {extra} kids.  I also teased you with how we used white noise to unload groceries…random, I know, but it’s kind of a funny situation.

8 people, 4 bedrooms; 4 of the “people” are 3 and under.

So, it was the first day of our trip, and we quickly realized that 2 in a room wasn’t ideal, especially for the little boys (ages 2 and 1).  My son (2) loves sleeping in his KidCo PeaPod, which can go anywhere.  So, I decided he could go in the kitchen.  We would just need to make sure we got everything out of the kitchen before he went down.  What we didn’t count on was getting things in the kitchen after he went down.  It was kind of a comedy of errors…

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  Opening the fridge and unloading groceries is a loud (and bright) task!

  My son goes to sleep at 7pm, so we scrambled to get the dishes done and everything out of the kitchen we needed.  We also are in Scotland, where it’s only really dark from 11pm to 3am, so we covered the windows with dark towels and turned on nature sounds from our portable sound machine to ensure a sleep-conducive environment.

• We also needed to go to the grocery store for essentials, such as milk, yogurt, meat, cheese etc. for the week.
• We couldn ‘t go right after dinner because my friend has to nurse her son (1) before bed time.  So, we decided we’d go after dinner, but quickly before the grocery store closed at 8.  (not kidding)
• This all sounded like a great plan until we realized that my son would be asleep in the very room that housed the refrigerator, and everything we were getting needed to be in it!

The plan of attack

Oh my word…so, I took one for the team and decided to be braver than I felt.  Before Luke was down for the night, I figured out when the kitchen door creaked and how to open it soundlessly.  I also checked the fridge to see if we could turn off the interior light.  We couldn’t.  Bummer.  Our last offensive move was to take the groceries out of the {loud} plastic sacks and put them in 1 large reusable, canvas bag.  So, we sneaked in the kitchen, silently opened the fridge door, and started unloading what felt like a million groceries.  All was going well except that the silly bagged lettuce was getting  crinkled every time we reached in to grab something!  We labored on, and I tell you what, I have never been more tankful for white noise!  That sweet boy stayed asleep and was oblivious to the whole thing!

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation was definitely the hardest part about having a baby.  Babies have a way of messing up sleep, regardless of the fact that they sleep 18-20 hours a day.  Amazingly enough, somehow none of those hours correspond to a normal adult’s night time sleep.  Then, when they finally do conk out, at say 10am, it’ s already morning and there’s work to do.  No wonder so many women suffer post-partum depression- nobody can function with a few hours of combined sleep at night.

Everybody has different opinions about getting babies to eat and sleep well at night.  I have read most of the popular books on tis subject and have come to 2 major conclusions.

1. EVERY baby is different.
2. You can not make a baby eat or sleep, but you can give them the best opportunities to do both well.

Tips for sleep that worked for us

{with 2 totally different babies}

In total desperation, I found that I would try almost anything to get my babies to sleep.  My husband and I had already determined we were not the co-sleeping family types- we bought a crib for a reason, and we meant to use it.  So, eventually I found a routine that worked magic for us:

This is SwaddleMe, whcih is what we used.

1. Get myself ready for bed- pj’s on, teeth brushed, ready to go.
2. Change diaper and ensure baby is awake and ready to eat.
3. Swaddle baby.  SwaddleMe or Miracle Blanket are great.
4. Nurse/bottle feed baby to a very dozey sleepiness.
5. Turn on white noise.  We use waterfall sound effects because they’re consistent and calm, unlike chirping birds or crashing waves (which I like for relaxation but not for sleep).
6. Lay baby in crib and say nuh-night.
7. Turn on white noise very low in my room-high enough to not hear every coo or sigh from baby, but low enough not to miss baby’s needs.

It was a thing of beauty- once perfected,t his routine got us past sleep deprivation and into “Man, I love this kid!” mode!

We live on a very busy road in the middle of town in a building that is over a century old. This means that 1. there is a lot of noise from the road below (yelling college students/drunks, very loud semi-trucks, and lots of sirens) and 2. the walls and our solid wooden doors are very thick. As in my children have to be screaming for me to hear them sometimes if my door is shut all the way. So we like to employ white noise while we sleep, but I still need to be able to hear my children if they need something in the middle of the night. Here are some tips for just how to do that.

I am sure this woman looks way better when she is sleeping than I do. That could be because she is sleeping in her make-up.

My husband and I have always slept with some white noise. Before we had children, we would have a fan running in the corner. After we had our first child, she slept in the room with us for the first few months, so we didn’t want to run a fan. (First time parents. We didn’t want a draft on our new baby!) After she finally moved out we could turn the fan back on, but then we worried we couldn’t hear her. Cue my first tip for you: use a baby monitor and either have the white noise in your child’s room  piped in over the monitor to be the white noise you use or have your own white noise machine in your room with the monitor turned up loud enough for you to hear your precious child if they cry. We used to just use our kids white noise until my daughter started yelling “I’m AWAAAAAKE!” at the top of her lungs every morning. (Now THAT will wake you up.) So, we turned her monitor to a much more reasonable level since we weren’t using her white noise for us and bought ourselves a white noise machine to put in our room.

Now, we also have the opposite problem at times. I can hear my child in the middle of the night and I don’t want to. Now, I am not talking about screaming and crying where he obviously needs something. I am talking about the situation where I have already been in to check on my one year old son and for some reason, he just decides it would be great if he woke up and started talking happily to himself at 4am. I want to be able to monitor the situation, but I also don’t want to lay in bed just listening to him and stewing because I can’t go back to sleep. Cue my second tip for you: use a timer for your white noise machine. Ours has a 10 minute, 30 minute, and 1 hour timer that I will use if I hear one the children awake in the middle of the night. When I come back into my room after checking on the awake child, I just press the timer button on my way back to bed.  Once the white noise turns off, I usually don’t even wake up unless I still hear my child and now I can reassess the situation and perhaps go back in and check on them. Or press the timer button again if they still sound okay.  Mama still gets her sleep and also doesn’t get mad. Beautiful! (Daddy wears ear plugs so he misses all of this stuff. Its okay. I still love him. He would get up if I really needed him to.)

Here are some other helpful things we have written in the past about white noise to help with sleeping.

Tossing & Turning

Do you lie awake at night, tossing and turning, trying to fall asleep, only to watch the seconds and minutes slowly tick by, knowing that you’ll feel like a truck hit you the next morning?  There are so many reasons you could be sleeping poorly- from stress and anxiety to actual insomnia, not sleeping is a fairly common problem.   Even knowing that, though, doesn’t mean you’ll magically talk your mind into relaxing for sleep.  Sadly, you just keep thinking about sleeping (or not sleeping) and your level of frustration will only escalate.

This is not exactly beckoning you to sleep.

Have you ever had one of those Hollywood–esque ideas that is so crazy it just might work?  Well, here is one of them, except it’s really not that crazy.  Since stress and anxiety are leading causes of sleep disorders, it’s not a far jump to suggest that less clutter and better organization might aide in better sleep.

For example, when I sit on the floor with my kids, my eye naturally travels under the couch and on top of tables and in nook and crannies.  So, instead of spending quality, in-the-moment time with my children, I am mentally cleaning and that’s all I can think about (OCD, I know- it comes with your first child).

How much more, then, when you’re bored out of your mind and should be sleeping but can’t, are you focusing on the clutter and disorganization around you instead of allowing your mind to turn off?

Some decluttering tips for better sleep

Before it’s time to sleep, take the hour or two (tell me it’s not more than that) to clean your room.  I don’t want to sound like your mom, but you need one right now.

• Hang up your clothes or throw them in the laundry basket (then make a mental note to actually do the laundry tomorrow)- the floor is not made for clothes.
• Dust.  Use a spray or wet cloth or whatever you need and rid yourself of its pesky presence.
• Simplify.  More is sometimes more.  An over-decorated or even over-furnitured room can be mentally overwhelming.
• Spring for a relaxing paint color, such as pale green or a warm cream, instead of stark white or distracting, bold colors.
• Use white noise to block distraction.  Here is a free white noise generator you can try out.  However, a portable sound machine is your best bet so you don’t run your computer all night- plus there are tons of options.  Alternatively, some people use sleep assistants to help clam their minds and bodies.  Go with what works for you.

With minimal effort, you can be more relaxed and sleeping better in your peaceful bedroom.  You’ve got nothing to lose and many hours of sleep to gain.  And, as an added bonus, you’ll get an organized room again.

So, it’s Christmas, and not unlike Four Christmases, some holidays are best spent sans family.  As it is, we live overseas, so Christmas is the only time we can come to the States, so avoiding family is not exactly an option.  This year, we spent a month with my parents and 3 weeks with my husband’s parents.  While at my in-laws’ house, my husband’s two sisters and their entourages also stayed with us.

7 adults

+ 4 children (9, 5, 3, and 1)

+ 2 dogs 1 dog (1 got sent away as a result of a scuffle)

_________________________________________

=Stressful & LOUD

Seriously, I cherish family time, and my in-laws are awesome.  However, squeezing that many people in 1 smallish house is painful even if the relationships themselves are not (though they might be after a week of cramped quarters).  Unfortunately, the 2 smaller children are mine- don’t get me wrong, I love my kids, but being the age they are, they still require a certain amount of sleeping that is pretty nonnegotiable.  So, barking dogs, quarreling cousins, boisterous meals, sibling rivalries, and countless other interruptions do not aide in my children’s sleep quota.

Can I say again how much I love white noise?  I used to think I had to blast the world’s loudest fan to block every single noise so my babies could sleep.  I have since learned that a low-level background noise is enough to provide a nice, secure, seemingly quiet nap and sleep area for both my children.

White noise isn’t just for children either.  My poor sister-in-law who only contributed the barking dog, but no children, had trouble sleeping until we insisted upon white noise.  (Evidently, my son’s early 6am rise was not conducive to her sleeping- especially if we chose to pretend we didn’t hear him).  A little white noise and she was able to filter it out.

Here are a few options: babies/children adults

And here’s a cool free generator you can try from the same company.

Yea for white noise!